Co-owner Julian Niccolini talks mainly about his olive oil, honey, wine and women; while his partner, Alex von Bidder, has written a charming children’s book, Wiggens Learns His Manners at the Four Seasons Restaurant, which is for their adult clients to give to their grandchildren, and for Lally Weymouth. The menu is back to its high-powered nursery-food best after the departure of buzzed-about Italian chef Fabio Trabocchi over “philosophical differences.”
To me, the most noteworthy things are the trendy silver wine units—$24,000 for the pair—at the front. They look like a Cadillac Escalade parked against the Philip Johnson paneling, and keep open bottles of wine fresh for up to two weeks.
But no column about restaurants would be complete without some discussion of food, which, like fashion, has its trends. Take the Washington-based Spanish chef José Andrés, who, according to BBC World News America, serves his dishes on sculptured hands rather than plates. Talk about finger food. I salute him.
And continuing with the topic of saluting, I’d like to start a club called Mirror, Mirror on the Wall—you can figure out why people qualify. Here is the first inductee:
• Terry Lundgren, chairman, chief executive and president of Macy’s, the glamour boy of retailing.
I’m sure you can come up with plenty more—as will I each month.
